The Unexpected Guest

We've spoken about it before, but I'm gonna go ahead and reiterate it now.

I am not good at unraveling mysteries. Love them, but can't solve one to save my life.

For one thing, my reasoning is all-too easily clouded by my emotions. For another, mysteries require thinking quickly and keeping a mental scorecard of details, and I've never been good at either of those. (This is also why I'm pretty bad at most card games.) However, I have taken some consolation over the years in the fact that writers of mysteries unfailingly pick the character I like best as the villain, and since this relieves me of the burden of having to try and figure them out, I can just enjoy watching them unfold.

Which is what I did at the matinee performance of The Unexpected Guest at Syracuse Stage on Sunday.

Ten peso plot (and I apologize in advance for the British accent I already hear in the writing...): A motorist runs his car off the road and happens upon a country house. Thinking to use the phone, he opens the unlocked glass door and discovers a murder victim. A woman enters holding the gun and confesses to the crime.

Of course, it gets a bit more complex after that. It is a mystery, after all. Can't take everything - or anything - at face value. (Another of my shortcomings as a sleuth.) Absolutely every character who had some kind of relationship with the victim could have killed him, from his wife Laura (Genevieve Elam), to his friend Julian (Anthony Marble), to his brother (a very Arnie Grape-ish Robb Sapp) or mother (Kathleen Huber), to the servants (Michele Tauber and a scene-stealing Robert K. Johansen). Even the motorist (John G. Preston) isn't above the suspicion of the police investigating the case, played by Richmond Hoxie and recent SU grad Danny Gordon (Hey, class of 2007!).

Don't you think we should get that man out of the house before he finds out what's been going on here!

(Side note: Can I even tell you how hard it is to write this review without launching into quotes from either Gosford Park or Clue? I don't think I've ever even USED the word motorist before...)

Under the direction of Bob Moss, the show finds the perfect balance between comedy and suspense. The set, designed by Russell Metheny, is exactly what you expect from a mystery set in a 1950s British country house - the ottomans, the decanters, the zebra-skin rug. Junghyun Georgia Lee's costumes are appropriately elegant and sedate, with a little shot of noir glamour for the character of Laura Warwick.

All in all, a quality time. Go, and then write me and let me know if you guessed right...The Unexpected Guest plays through June 10.